A little history

After reading the history of photography, all of the old family pictures suddenly became very interesting to me. It's amazing how far we have come in just a short amount of time. From silver nitrate to pixels! Isn't it incredible? I'm very happy that my family saw the importance of portraits, even though I'm sure they were very expensive and hard to come by in those times. I guess that's part of the reason I'm so interested in family portraiture. One hundred years from now, our children are going to look at our albums, maybe they won't be on paper or even a computer screen, but they will look at them and be appreciative. It's such a beautiful way to record our history. So I thought I would share a few of my family's old portraits.

How cool is Photoshop?

You can take an otherwise bad exposure and turn it into something else. Love photoshop 

The red chairs

My parents like to collect antiques. Probably a lot easier for them now that they don't have kids in the house! Watching my own boys destroy my furniture, I suddenly feel guilty and very bad for my own parents. I know we destroyed all of their nice things…..oh well, I guess that's the price of having children!
Living out here in Iowa, there seems to be a lot of auctions and a lot of people selling older, more charming furiture pieces. My dad found a couple of chairs he liked on craigslist, and asked me to pick them up for him. I've got to say, I fell in love immediately! Before I gave them to my dad, I had to get a few pictures!! And yes, Lilly kitty thought they were hers the minute they came out of the car.

The birdhouse

My husband just bought me a little bird feeder. Mostly because my son and my cat love to watch the birds, haha, but it also gives me something to practice on. Yes, its through my window, because anytime I try going out onto the porch I spook the little dears. But, everyday is different, and so is the lighting, so while I am still trying to perfect my exposure technique, they are pretty good little models. Here are a couple of my better exposures. And the last one, obviously is a squirrel….let's just say he wasn't able to hold on for very long!

Snowy Day

Sunny Day

Rainy Day

Cloudy Day

Larsen family photos

Yesterday, I was able to do my very first real 'photo shoot'! I've got to say it was a lot of fun. Kristin Larsen and her two lovely children Royce and London were kind enough to humor me while I practiced a little bit! What a beautiful family and what an absolutely beautiful day! I had hoped to have a little bit of cloud cover, but hey, what can I say? Has the weatherman ever been right? In spite of the bright sunshine, I really enjoyed working with this family! Kids are so honest and genuine when it comes to smiling for the camera. Yes, they can be a bit of a ham, but who doesn't love a big cheesy baby grin? They are the best! 

Spring finally sprung!

Finally! The clouds went away and the sun came out! I thought Spring break was going to be a waste. My phone kept telling me it was going to be a nice and warm and then just kept on letting me down. I  tell you what, we were all starting to get a little bit of cabin fever. So when today rolled around, I said, enough is enough! We put on our sweaters and sneakers and out into the backyard we went! Tristan was so happy to be able to run around and get out at least some of the energy he had been storing up all winter! Aramis got to just sit on the porch and watch. Hopefully he will be able to join in the fun soon!

I've got to say I really enjoy shooting photos in natural light. I had hoped it would be a little less harsh, maybe a tad overcast. But, hey, we will take sunny any day! At least one good thing about super bright light is that you can turn the shutter speed way up, making motion shots a lot clearer. Now, I know these aren't perfect, but they are as close to it as I have ever come, at least since shooting in digital format. It often seemed nothing was too fast when I was using film.

What I learned today? How to better using bright lighting to my advantage. Tristan, the good sport he is, had no problem running up and down the lawn while I practiced with different settings. I'm glad we were all able to get outside and play today!

New Lenses

My very first lens went to my Nikon F4, and it was a 50mm f/1.8. Happily, it also worked on my DSLR. My second lens was a 28-300mm f3.2/5.3 zoom, which I thought was great because all of a sudden I could zoom in on an object a fair distance away.  The one problem with a zoom though, if you get one like I did, it doesn't have a fixed aperture. It also is very subjective to camera shake, and many images zoomed in tend to be very blurry. Unless you use a tripod, which is not ideal in all situations. 

Just recently, my dad got me a gift, an 18-55mm lens, not the fanciest one out there, but just something to practice more of a wide angle with. I've got to say, after having used a 50mm more often than not, seeing through the lens at 18mm was quite a change!  All of a sudden I could fit an entire room into one shot! As soon as the weather warms up, I'm excited to take it out and try some landscape photography.

And just this past week, I ordered myself a happy tax return gift. An 85mm f/1.8.  And it is unbelievably fantastic! I have never had such a clear image or beautiful blurred background as I get with this lens. I made my kids pose for me on the front porch the other day and just had so much fun experimenting with lighting and aperture. I can't wait to get out and go shutter crazy!  Hopefully the weather stays nice!